WITH one thrust of her ample bosom, Barbara Windsor not only launched a bikini top with all the force of a weapon of mass destruction, she also launched a career as a national treasure.

That scene, from the film Carry On Camping, although hardly the most sophisticated or subtle ever devised, most go down as possibly the most memorable and definitely the most repeated in British cinematic history. And old super-baps Babs deserves her hallowed place in the nation's affections, if only for her irrepressible sense of fun and THAT laugh.

Both were cranked up high last night in Being Peggy Mitchell (BBC1). Peggy Mitchell, of course, is the loud-mouth harridan, played by Barbara, who pulls pints and tells customers, seemingly every other episode to "get out of my pub", at the Queen Vic in EastEnders.

It's a role that she's become synonymous with these last seven years, but isn't it a bit demeaning to Babs to have her own name usurped by a character with all the charm of a lager-encrusted beer mat?

Not that Babs would mind. She loved EastEnders - heaven knows why - before she even appeared in it, and now she seems to think she's the luckiest woman alive.

"I was in monstrous debt," she said, about her penury before Albert Square salvation. Now she can't wait to get on the set, sometimes six days a week.

This was a day in the life of Babs, both as Peggy and as herself. "Ain't she lovely?", "ain't he lovely?," she cooed after smiling and saying hello to all her work colleagues. They, equally, were as complimentary about her. Quite right, too. EastEnders is pants, but Babs is the best.

It was a repeat, but I still couldn't believe nutty gardener Diarmuid Gavin actually installed an armadillo-shaped steel shelter in Home Front (BBC2). No, Diarmuid, no, you're going too far.